The vast bulk of material remains from EarlyIron Age Europe was found in tombs. Both the Hellenization model and the alternative offered here are based on the interpretation of burial goods, a hotly contested issue in modern archaeological theory.
Much of my research, at this point, involves the interpretation of funerary assemblages. I am looking at theoretical models used in anthropology and comparing the assemblages on which those models are based (usually New World) with the tomb complexes of Iron Age Europe.
My current position on the issue is very open. I do not feel that tomb goods are automatically particularly good indicators of customs practiced in life, of specific social status or function of the deceased, or of interregional interaction. Death ritual and, to some extent, beliefs about the afterlife seem to determine many aspects of funerary assemblages.
This is an issue into which I will look further.
January 1995.